Belgium “lent a helping hand” and the women’s team continues to do well in the Nations League

Looking at Portugal's Nations League group, with Spain, England and Belgium, there certainly wouldn't have been many who would have predicted the women's team would have four points after the second round. But a draw with the mighty England and a 1-0 away win against Belgium on Wednesday mean that Portugal are not only comfortable in the fight to stay in League A (the last team in the group is relegated) but are also well placed to qualify for the semi-finals.

To get there, Portugal needed a helping hand – specifically, the left hand of Tysiak, a Belgian centre-back who blocked the ball with his hand and gave Carole Costa a well-converted penalty in a match that was difficult to turn around. In the second half, after taking the lead, the national team showed great maturity in the way they controlled the match with the ball.

So far, Portugal couldn't ask for much better than this in their return to League A of the Nations League.

Space attack

Portugal used the 3x5x2 formation they had used in the draw with England, while Belgium used a somewhat anarchic 5x4x1 formation. The Belgian team always covered the ball well when Portugal went out on the right flank, but on the opposite side there was a total asymmetry in the Belgian midfield – “craters” were created in the central zone, which Portugal exploited very little.

When the Portuguese took the ball to the right wing there was a whole ocean to explore in the central zone, because Jarne Teulings never closed in the middle – Kika Nazareth, injured, was sorely missed , because it was precisely in her preferred area of ​​action that the “gold” was.

One solution would be for Jéssica or Diana to ask for the ball more in frontal support between the lines – and less in attacking space –, but the Portuguese game was very much based on long balls into depth and the two attacking players ended up adapting more to that than to reading the empty spaces.

Portugal created two dangerous chances with balls behind the Belgian defence – perhaps that's why the team felt that this was their only attacking route –, one of them with a ball hitting the post by Marchão, who shortly afterwards "offered" an opportunity to Janssens by misreading a long ball.

Decisive penalty

An individual play by Jéssica on the left wing, at 50', resulted in a cut with Tysiak's arm and a penalty converted by Carole Costa.

Portugal came out of the break with more patience, with longer possessions and more judgement, waiting for Diana Silva to find space between the lines, while Jéssica broke through into space.

Andreia Jacinto and Andreia Norton were also asking for the ball in that area, always providing passing lanes through the central area – in the first half, this didn't exist and Portugal always hit long, while in this phase they were already trying to control the game with the ball.

Jéssica had the 2-0 on her left foot just after the hour mark, but offered the ball to Lichtfus with a weak shot, and Jacinto had a great opportunity in the 81st minute, again from a Belgian “offer”.